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Michigan House says yes to sending $195M to Detroit

LANSING, Mich. — A state contribution to help the city of Detroit emerge from bankruptcy received overwhelming bipartisan support Thursday in the Michigan Legislature.The package of 11 bills heads next to the

"I hail from southwest Michigan, but today I stand with Detroit and its path back to prosperity," said GOP Rep. Al Pscholka of Stevensville, Mich., shortly before the House voted 103-7 to pass the main bill in the package. The bills spell out strings attached to $194.8 million the state could send to Detroit to help ease cuts to pensioners and protect artwork at the Detroit Institute of Arts from sale.

Democrats praised the work that went into the bills meant to govern everything from how the money would be transferred to setting up an oversight commission that would have control of the city's finances, budgets and contracts for at least 13 years.

"Expediting Detroit out of bankruptcy starts a new day for us," said state Rep. Thomas Stallworth, a Detroit Democrat. "I started as a janitor in this Legislature. And I dreamed of the day I might be able to be in this chamber and really represent the needs of the people."

All Republicans and 43 of the 50 Democrats voted for the main bill. Seven Democrats — some who said they hate the idea of long state control of the city — voted against the bill.

"I have a hard time supporting this legislation because it's a 13-year minimum state takeover of the city of Detroit," said another Detroit Democrat, Rep. David Nathan. "I voted against the emergency manager law, and this here today is just as wrong. This bill tramples on democracy."

Detroit is battling to reduce $18 billion in debts and restructure its city government in the nation's largest ever municipal bankruptcy.

While most of the bills received overwhelming support, a bill that would prohibit the Detroit Institute of Arts from seeking a renewal or new taxes to support the world-class museum started the debate Thursday on the bankruptcy bills and drew the most opposition.

The museum bill, which passed by a 66-44 vote, was included the 11-bill package but the vote came after the Detroit Institute of Arts distributed a letter to all lawmakers adamantly opposing the bill.

The bill did not belong in the package because it essentially tells voters in the Detroit metro area that they aren't smart enough to decide whether they wanted to tax themselves to support the museum, several Democrats said.

"Passage of this bill says to voters you're not intelligent enough to determine what services you want to contract for," said state Rep. Jon Switalski, a Democrat from Warren, Mich. "It says we're going to dictate from on high what we think is good for you."

Voters in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne passed a 10-year tax for the museum in 2012. It brings in about $23 million annually, roughly 70% of the institute's annual budget.

GOP Rep. Ken Goike of Ray Township in Macomb County, sponsored the bill and said it would provide relief to taxpayers. Republicans also argued that it wasn't appropriate for the Detroit museum, which will go from a quasi-public entity to a private nonprofit, to ask taxpayers for money.

However, the state already grants millions of tax dollars a year through the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs to private, non city-owned cultural organizations, including museums, symphonies, dance companies and theaters.

"Taxpayers are being asked to help Detroit and many of those don't agree this is something they should be asked to do. They deserve some relief," Goike said. "One way to do that is to hold the DIA to its word that they needed a 10-year millage to get back on solid ground."

In the run-up to the local tax vote two years ago, museum officials said that the tax was necessary to give the museum the breathing room to be able to raise $200 million to $300 million in endowment money. The museum's chief operating officer, Annmarie Erickson, said Wednesday that the museum now must raise an additional $100 million because of the state's bankruptcy deal referred to as the "grand bargain."

"Our role in the bankruptcy has damaged our ability to raise endowment funds, and we are not where we had hoped to be," Erickson said. "It may be that the voters here may want to continue some of the benefits that the millage provides like free admission. We should not be making decision today that prohibit voters from deciding their fate seven years in the future."

Some Democrats outside of the Detroit metro area were concerned about the precedent.

"This really seems like sour grapes to me," said Rep. Andy Schor of Lansing. "We should let the voters decide this in those three counties."